“Well—!”
She looked up at him, from halfway up the stairs, one lovely knee in the silvery corduroy skirt advanced above the other — her face candlelit, smiling doubtfully, a little puzzled.
“It’s only that I thought it would be nice to ask you from a distance, just to see you when I ask it — these things are usually settled at such close quarters, see?”
“Yes, darling, go on—”
“Well, it’s only this. How would you feel, my darling, if I was to say that I thought it would be nice if we were to have a son.”
“Oh, Tip!”
“And if a woman can look as lovely as that, it’s high time, too!”
“What nonsense! Darling!”
“No nonsense at all. Besides, there’s an omen. I had an omen!”
“What was your precious omen?”
“Cut all things or gather, the moon in the wane—
But sow in increasing or give it his bane.
“Two lines I suddenly remembered out of an old book.”
“But what do they mean? — Tip?”
“What do they mean? You just come up and go to bed, my darling; and I’ll go down and brush my teeth; and then — well, we’ll just see!”
“But, Tip, have you considered — I mean, all the things—”
“There aren’t any things — and I have considered. And to hell with considering anyway! I want a son, see? Even if he’s born, like me, with a cleft palette in his hand!”
“How ridiculous you are, darling!”
“Yes, I guess maybe I am — I guess maybe I am! But being ridiculous isn’t always such a bad thing to be.…”
About the Author
Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) was an American poet, novelist, and short story author, and one of the most acclaimed writers of the twentieth century. His numerous honors include the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Award for Poetry, the Bollingen Prize, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal. Born in Savannah, Georgia, Aiken was orphaned at a young age and was raised by his great-great-aunt in Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University with T. S. Eliot and was a contributing editor to the influential literary journal the Dial, where he befriended Ezra Pound.
Aiken published more than fifty works of poetry, fiction, and criticism, including the novels Blue Voyage, Great Circle, King Coffin, A Heart for the Gods of Mexico, and Conversation, and the widely anthologized short stories “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” and “Mr. Arcularis.” He played a key role in establishing Emily Dickinson’s status as a major American poet, mentored a young Malcolm Lowry, and served as the US poet laureate from 1950 to 1952. Aiken returned to Savannah eleven years before his death; the epitaph on his tombstone in Bonaventure Cemetery reads: Cosmos Mariner, Destination Unknown.